


"Oxygen" S10.5: Decoding Doctor Who Season 10 Episodes (Updated)

by TardisGirlLoveStory



Series: Season 10 Doctor Who [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Analysis, F/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 19:18:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10951029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisGirlLoveStory/pseuds/TardisGirlLoveStory
Summary: This is the continuing work of a multi-chapter handbook and meta analysis for Season 10 of BBC's Doctor Who.  While it's not absolutely necessary to read the previous documents, I do build on the concepts and metaphors explained previously.Season 10 spoiler warnings





	"Oxygen" S10.5: Decoding Doctor Who Season 10 Episodes (Updated)

**Author's Note:**

> **** Spoiler warning. ****
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images

[[For images, see my tumblr chapter]](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/post/160863120468/ch-1-oxygen-analysis-doctor-who-s105/)

*** Update ***  
My apologies. I thought I posted the information about the previous Star Trek references in a prior chapter. My notes had them in "Smile." However, I never posted them. Read "Extremis," which I'll post before the next episode comes out on Saturday, for the information on why the Star Trek references are important. ****

I don’t have much time to write, but I wanted to post something.  This is just going to be a bunch of thoughts, so you’ll have to excuse the flow.  Things really are happening at breakneck speed in Season 10 because there is so much story left to tell that has been in the subtext for the 12th Doctor for many years.  I’m really concerned about how this will play out because I’m feeling like we are going to get shortchanged, as everything is getting very condensed since Capaldi is leaving.

##  **The 12th Doctor, the Fluid Link & the 1st Doctor**

We know the Doctor lies, but the 12th Doctor seems to be taking deceitfulness to new heights in “Oxygen.”  

> **NARDOLE** : Fluid link K57. Removed it from the Tardis the other night after your lecture.  
>  (Ah, the good old fluid link. Does it need any mercury this time?)  
>  **DOCTOR** : That is very untrusting.  
>  **NARDOLE** : You took an oath, sir. The vault cannot be unguarded.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Oh, listen to Mister Boring.  
>  **NARDOLE** : I'm acting under your orders!  
>  **DOCTOR** : See how reliable I am?  
>  **BILL** : What's a fluid link?  
>  **NARDOLE** : No idea. But the Tardis can't go anywhere without it.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Who told you that?  
>  **NARDOLE** : You did.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Exactly. (snaps his fingers) Teach you to trust me.

Actually, the heights aren’t new.  He’s acting like the 1st Doctor did, especially in the very 1st Dalek story “The Daleks” where the fluid link (K7) first shows up.  (The 1st Doctor really does have to show up with all the 1st Doctor references we’ve been getting.  I’ve only mentioned a few to you.)  

It’s in “The Daleks” where the Doctor looks totally devious, as he tells Ian, Barbara, and Susan that he needs mercury for the link, which he says most likely would be in the Dalek city on Skaro.  It was a ploy, so he could investigate the city.  The 4 of them are subjected to the radiation the Daleks unleash when they explode neutron bombs.  Strange things soon start happening to them, especially Susan and the TARDIS in subsequent episodes.

At the beginning of “Oxygen,” the 12th Doctor is mirroring, to a great extent, the 1st Doctor.  

In the 2nd Dalek story, the Daleks are using humans to build human cyborgs that look like they would become the forerunners to the old Cybermen.  However, the Doctor intervenes and takes control of them.  

##  **Capitalism Runs Amok Again**

“Oxygen,” for one thing, is an allegory of capitalism taken too far where human life has no value at all.  This becomes the end point where capitalism dies.  Continuing in the vein of episodes, such as “Thin Ice” and “Sleep No More,” “Oxygen” shows us a situation of moral bankruptcy.  This time Ganymede Systems charges its workers for the oxygen they use.  When the workers become a liability, the company kills them.

I keep coming back to my question of whether Caecilius, who in “The Fires of Pompeii,” wanted to get rich.  Did the 10th Doctor sparing him cause this and other problems in the universe?  In fact, the subtext in many episodes says that the Doctor, as a human, is responsible for building dangerous machines or businesses and putting profits over people or other sentient beings.  Here are just a few examples:

 **“A Town Called Mercy”**  
For example, we saw that Kahler-Jex was a mirror of the Doctor in “A Town Called Mercy.”  Jex used deceitfulness to trick Academy students into volunteering for what they thought were peacekeeping missions.  However, he turned them into cyborg war machines.

 **“The Next Doctor”**  
In another example, in “The Next Doctor” both the 10th Doctor and Jackson Lake, who thinks he is the next Doctor (and really is a mirror of the Doctor), are ironmongers in an episode where Cybermen as well as child slaves are helping to build a giant CyberKing Dreadnought-class ship.  Here’s the 10th Doctor next to the Ironmongery sign.  


Here’s Jackson Lake below with a different Ironmongery sign next to him.  


**“Human Nature”**  
In a third example this time from “Human Nature,” we see an Ironmongers sign next to the 10th Doctor and Joan.  


**“Deep Breath”**  
Yet another example comes from “Deep Breath,” where the 12th Doctor talks about the metalwork of the half-faced man.

> **DOCTOR** : Well, it would need a constant supply of spare parts. You can tan skin, but organs rot. Some of that metalwork looks Roman. Wonder how long it's been around, how much of the original is even left? The eyeballs look very fresh, though.

Here’s a reference most likely to Caecilius and “The Fires of Pompeii.”  Roman metalwork could also be a reference to the Roman god Vulcan, which we’ll examine in a few minutes.

 **“Oxygen”**  
Even “Oxygen” provides examples.  In fact, the SmartSuits are labeled “Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit.”  Twelve is an important number here, referring to the 12th Doctor.  In fact, in a similar way that we saw him mirroring the Emojibot from “Smile” and Rory mirroring Rorybot from “The Girl Who Waited,” the 12th Doctor is mirroring the suit, shown below.  Of course, suit has a dual meaning: the actual SmartSuit and the business people at Ganymede Systems, who are exploiting their workers and killing them.  As a human, the Doctor did some things he would never dream of as a Time Lord.  


However, the Doctor, playing multiple parts, also mirrors the zombie in the SmartSuit, shown below.  Check out how the tilt of his head matches the zombie, someone who is being controlled.  This suggests, like so many other things we’ve seen, that the Doctor is being controlled.  


This all is not surprising, as we’ve seen how the Doctor, before waking up through the Great Work, was used to do some terrible things in the subtext.  Through “Oxygen,” you can see some of the terrible things he was made to do, like killing people through the SmartSuits.

 **Other Examples**  
Some of the villains like John Lumic of Cybus Industries are mirrors of the Doctor in the subtext.  They build up large corporations who take advantage of people.  Newton in _The Man Who Fell to Earth_ built up a monopoly in many areas in order to fund his ship to return to his people.  Is this similar to what happened to the Doctor?

##  **Building the Stone Computer: Gallifrey & the Library**

I believe the whole capitalism gone amok idea idea plays into building the stone computer, which on Gallifrey turns on the people who built it.  It’s a theme that was played out in “Smile” with the Emojibots and Vardy.

Either a mention of the stone computer/circuit board or imagery of one shows up in at least 3 episodes.  In “The Fires of Pompeii,” Caecilius is a marble tradesman who mines, polishes, and designs the stone.  He makes stone circuit boards to meet the chief augur’s specifications.  Then, during “Forest of the Dead,” we see a different stone circuit board behind River when she dies in the Library.  Most important, the Doctor talks about a database and stone circuit boards in “Hell Bent” when he and Clara are in the Cloisters on Gallifrey.

A Cybus Industries Cyberman reaches for Clara in the Cloisters.

> **DOCTOR** : Keep away from them! The Matrix can use them as a defence. It means the secret exit must be close.  
>  **CLARA** : What's to defend in a crypt?  
>  **DOCTOR** : It's not just a crypt. More like a stone circuit board. This is the Matrix database.  
>  (They arrive at an area with a glowing interlocking circles pattern on the floor without actually noticing. Clara stands in the middle of it.)  
>  **CLARA** : Database? What do you mean, database?  
>  (The Doctor realises where she's standing.)

A short time later, the Doctor finishes his thought:

> **DOCTOR** : When Time Lords die, their minds are uploaded to a thing called the Matrix. This structure, it's like a living computer. It can predict the future, generate prophecies out of algorithms, ring the Cloister bells in the event of impending catastrophe. The Sliders, they're just like the guard dogs, the firewall. Projections from inside the Matrix itself. The dead, manning the battlements.  
>  **CLARA** : Was I supposed to understand any of that?  
>  **DOCTOR** : The Time Lords have got a big computer made of ghosts, in a crypt, guarded by more ghosts.

Before all of this above, the Doctor and Clara come across an entangled Dalek.

> **DALEK** : Exterminate me.  
>  **CLARA** : Is it trapped?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Don't worry, it's been neutralised. Those aren't vines. In your terms, they're fibre-optic cables, they're alive and growing. We're inside the biggest database in history.

The implication is that the stone computer ties together the 3 episodes.  In fact, while Gallifrey has the biggest database in history, the Library planet has the biggest hard drive, as the Doctor says in “Silence in the Library.”

> **DOCTOR** : It's a world. Literally, a world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed.

While the largest database in history does not necessarily mean it needs the largest hard drive, I’m taking it as such.  The Library and Gallifrey would then be mirrors, which aren’t surprising, since we saw that both the Library and Gallifrey were part of the Eye of Harmony.

Because Caecilius (the Doctor enslaved) helped build stone circuit boards, the Doctor most likely helped build the stone computer on Gallifrey.  Not only that, he helped build up society whether it was in Pompeii or on Gallifrey.  How much did he contribute to building the corrupt system when he was enslaved? 

##  **How Much Does the Doctor Know Ahead of Time?**

In “Oxygen,” the Doctor lectures about space, instead of crop rotation, and Nardole sees the warning signs.  Also, the Doctor knows about the distress call from the space base when he asks Bill to choose where to go in space.  However, does he know about it when he lectures about space?  There may very well be more than it seems that is pulling the Doctor to take off in the TARDIS with Bill.

He doesn’t refuse the distress call, so he actually is in a Catch-22 situation about leaving Earth possibly open to attack or definitely letting people on the station die.  However, the situation has a broader implication, reaching across galaxies.  

> **NARDOLE** : Is that really the best you've got? Revenge?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Not just revenge. It's revenge as bright as the sun. It's revenge you can see across galaxies! Not bad for a blind man.

So is the Doctor having to decide Earth vs. many planets and multiple galaxies?  The subtext suggests that he knows there’s something he has to fix, so he takes the chance.

Interestingly, at the end of the episode, the Doctor talks about what he remembers of the resolution of capitalism gone amok.  We learn the revolt against corruption was a fixed point in history.

> (The Doctor is sitting with his feet up on his desk, wearing his shades and playing with a yellow yo-yo - not very well, truth be told.)  
>  **BILL** : Does it work?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Does what work?  
>  **BILL** : Making a complaint to Head Office.  
>  **DOCTOR** : No idea. Never had a head office. But as far as I remember, there's a successful rebellion six months later. Corporate dominance in space is history, and that about wraps it for capitalism.

Are the other station crew really dead?  Because I found this exchange below quite odd.

> **NARDOLE** : There's nothing we can do! She's dead.  
>  **DOCTOR** : She's no more dead than you are. Than I am. Than everyone on this station is. Get me to a keyboard.

Is he only talking about those living?  It doesn’t sound like it to me.  If not, what happened to the other people?

##  **Part of the Plan & Whose Fault?**

Once again, we see a horse in the episode, shown below, this time in the TARDIS, so going to the mining station is part of the rescue plan.  Interestingly, the horse is on the other side of the divider from Bill, and there’s a blurry part on the right side of the image.  The Ghost may be the Architect here, or whatever is in the Vault.  From the trailer, it does sound like Missy is in the Vault.  However, is it really that simple?  Right now, I suspect it isn’t.  


It’s interesting that Nardole brings up the whole not-your-fault about what he assumes was Bill’s death to which the Doctor responds

> **NARDOLE** : Doctor, it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have saved her!  
>  **DOCTOR** : You know what's wrong with this universe? Believe me, I've looked into it. Everyone says it's not their fault. Well, yes, it is. All of it. It's all your fault. So, what are you going to do about it?  
>  **NARDOLE** : There's nothing we can do! She's dead.  
>  **DOCTOR** : She's no more dead than you are. Than I am. Than everyone on this station is. Get me to a keyboard.

Is the Doctor speaking literally when he says it’s Nardole’s fault?  Or is it figuratively, meaning himself, as Nardole is a face of the Doctor?  Or maybe everyone is complicit, as in one is either part of the problem or part of the solution?  I’m taking it as all of the above, referring not just to Bill’s apparent death at the time, but also to the whole capitalistic system gone awry.

He’s taking responsibility for what he did in the past by answering the distress call, but he’s impulsive and very emotional, which can lead to other issues.  Also, he takes responsibility for Bill’s terrible situation and risks his own life by giving her his helmet.

##  **More Racism, Species-ism, Etc.**

Racism and species-ism come up as our continuing themes.  In a twist, Bill is accused of being a racist by Dahh-ren for her reaction to his blueness.  Also of interest are the Doctor’s questions about the AI in the suits:

> **DOCTOR** : But can they learn? Evolve? Grow? Maybe get tired of carrying pesky humans around? Know the feeling?  
>  (Nardole nods, and Bill is taken aback.)

It’s probably a reference to the Star Whale being a slave to humans, as well as the Emojibots and Vardies.

##  **Broken Promises, Devastating Consequences & Blindness**

Once again, we see the Doctor yearning to be out among the stars when he’s looking out his office window.  The urge to leave Earth is just too much for him.  As we saw above, it’s part of the rescue plan, and once again he breaks his promise in order to rescue people from a system that has become corrupt to the point of moral bankruptcy.  If he did help create the system that he is now railing against, he would feel especially responsible for fixing the problems.  

Since Earth can be a metaphor for himself, leaving it vulnerable means he could also be placing others before himself.  I don’t mean to suggest that he is always totally selfless; we know he’s not.  However, I believe the situation is not as simple as it looks.  And he is being driven, in part, by other motives that are more obscure than the text suggests.

Regardless, he and Bill suffered devastating consequences, just as the subtext in the previous episodes said would happen.  The Doctor, for once, is not immune, just as the landlord wasn’t.  Is the Doctor’s blindness really permanent?  It doesn’t look like it from the trailers for the season.  Will the Doctor do a partial regeneration to heal his eyes?  That seems likely from the trailers, or is the Doctor able to use some other method to see?

How will what happened affect the Doctor and Bill’s relationship?  Nardole and Bill’s relationship?  Nardole and the Doctor’s relationship?

##  **It’s a Good Day to Die**

The Doctor wanting to die well and make his death have a lot of meaning does go along with him dying in battle like Nelson’s falling column suggested.  If not a battle, per se, he will go out fighting like he was doing in “Oxygen.”  Whatever he will do, the foreshadowing here suggests his death will be big and make a big statement.

##  **Ganymede Has Multiple Meanings**

In “Oxygen,” Ganymede Systems is the company that created the SmartSuits.  However, Ganymede has other meanings that have importance to the Doctor.  Besides referring to the largest moon of Jupiter, Ganymede is the name of a divine hero in Greek mythology who was the subject of a painting by Rembrandt (so is connected to the Doctor) and a character in a Shakespearean play, which also has multiple ties to the Doctor.  Additionally, there is a connection to the Vatican, and in the next episode, the clips show the Pope.

####  **The Divine Greek Mythological Hero**

Ganymede, who was thought to be the most beautiful mortal, was a descendant of river gods.  In one source of the myth, Zeus spotted Ganymede herding his sheep on a mountain and abducted him for his beauty.  Either Zeus turned into an eagle or summoned one to fly the youth to Mount Olympus.  Ganymede became the cupbearer to the gods on Mount Olympus and gained immortality, the only one of Zeus’ lovers to do so.  Zeus later put Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius, which is associated with that of the Eagle (Aquila).  It’s another form of immortality.

Gaining immortality is suggested in “Oxygen” when the Doctor is looking at one of the zombies (red arrow), shown below, who was killed by his SmartSuit.  And he quotes the First Epistle to the Corinthians from the New Testament: “Death, where is thy sting?”  


> I Corinthians 15: 54-57  
>  54.       So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  
>  55.       O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

####  **The Doctor, Rembrandt, and _The Abduction of Ganymede_**

Interestingly, Ganymede is the subject of a 1635 painting by Rembrandt, and we’ve already seen that the Doctor is associated with Rembrandt.  Because of this connection, Ganymede and the painting become very important.  Rembrandt painted _The Abduction of Ganymede_ , which, shown below, shows the eagle carrying an unwilling Ganymede to Mount Olympus.  The master painter chose to make Ganymede a young child, dispensing with the homosexual nature of the myth.   


Rembrandt’s initial sketch informs us of the changes he made in the painting.  Initially, there were people below, who were trying to reach for the child.  However, in the painting, Rembrandt omitted them.  Instead, the child’s abduction brings darkness and despair on the Earth.  The interpretation of the painting is that the child was abducted from life too soon.  

Is this abduction connected to the one we saw with the 10th Doctor and the abducted Scottish boy in “Tooth and Claw”?  Whom the subtext suggests is the Doctor or a face of the Doctor.

Does the Doctor’s blindness represent the darkness and despair in the painting?

####  **Ganymede & Shakespeare**

I’ve been wondering about mistaken identity for a while in DW, and Ganymede shows up in Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_ , which is a comedy of mistaken identity.  Rosalind, the heroine, dresses up as a boy, Ganymede.  According to Wikipedia, “She plays on her ambiguous charm to seduce Orlando, but also (involuntarily) the shepherdess Phebe. Thus behind the conventions of Elizabethan theater in its original setting, the young boy playing the girl Rosalind dresses up as a boy and is then courted by another boy playing Phebe.”

The themes of the play are love, usurpation and injustice, forgiveness, and court life vs. country life.  The play is also a religious allegory to Eden.

So is there mistaken identity going on in DW?  Since the subtext suggests the Doctor was duplicated in “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion,” it’s possible.  

Also, mistaken identity could have to do with the Doctor having to hide himself as a human.  In fact, not only does Missy say the Doctor was a little girl, the 10th Doctor’s own watch with his Time Lord consciousness in “Human Nature” had the female voice say, “Merge with the faces of men,” as we saw in my meta/handbook _Fairytales and Romance_ “[Chapter 10: Explaining the Doctor Who 2016 Christmas Special 2nd Trailer](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8033002/chapters/20484622).”  What exactly does that mean?  The subtext suggests the Doctor is hiding his true identity.

Also, the 12th Doctor episode “In the Forest of the Night” has little Maebh Arden talking to the trees that magically grew overnight.  The Arcadian Forest of Arden is the magical setting of _As You Like It_.  Arcadia happens to be the Gallifreyan city that people thought was the safest city on the planet during the Time War.  An allusion to the Garden of Eden is also in this episode 

> **MINISTER** [on TV} The Government emergency committee, COBRA, has formulated an action plan. We will create pathways through the trees using carefully controlled fires. This will facilitate the movement of essential services.

COBRA is a reference to the snake in Eden, of course.  The committee would have destroyed Earth if the plan had worked.

####  **Ganymede and the Vatican**

Since the Vatican is involved in the upcoming episode “Extremis,” the Vatican connection may be important with Ganymede.  In a Vatican museum, there is a 2nd century Roman copy of the eagle and Ganymede sculpted in marble, which was created from a bronze original by Leochares of the 4th century BCE.  Does the death of capitalism or Ganymede Systems have something to do with the Vatican and what is going on?  


##  **Does mistaken identity have some other significance?**

Mistaken identity must be important because in “Face the Raven,” we see mistaken identity with a link to Season 10 episode “The Pilot.”  

 **“Face the Raven”**  
In “Face the Raven,” we first see Anah, who supposedly died, inside some odd stasis device.  


The Doctor has a conversation about her: 

> **DOCTOR** : She's a Janus.  
>  **ASHILDR** : She escaped slavery. She fled here with her child.  
>  **DOCTOR** : The child. A daughter?  
>  **ASHILDR** : No, a boy.  
>  **CLARA** : Is that bad?  
>  **DOCTOR** : No, it's not bad, it's just unhelpful. A daughter might've seen who killed her mother.  
>  (The Doctor nods to the back of Anah's head. Clara steps forward to see a second face there.)  
>  **DOCTOR** : The female Janus is psychic. One face sees into the future, the other looks behind her, into the past.  
>  **CLARA** : I think we saw her son outside.

A short time later, we learn about the mistaken identity when Clara and the Doctor talk to Anahson, shown below.  


> (Clara and Anahson are sitting on the settee.)  
>  **CLARA** : She dressed you as a boy to protect you, but really you're a girl. You have the gift.  
>  **ANAHSON** : It is no gift. I'm safe as a boy. This is the first place I've ever been safe, and you want me to throw it away? To admit what I am?

Anah and Anahson are both mirrors of the Doctor because they both can see into the past and future, like he can.  BTW, adding “son” to Anah is a very Norse way of naming boy children.  Anah and Anahson add more proof to Missy’s claim that the Doctor used to be a little girl, who may have had to hide as a boy. 

BTW, before the Doctor, Clara, and Rigsy find Trap Street, we see a statue of anti-slavery campaigner John Batchelor.

 **“The Pilot”**  
In “The Pilot,” Heather is in the puddle on the strange Ood-like planet.  The subtext says she is a Janus because she has 2 faces (red and yellow arrows) like Anah and Anahson.  This isn’t surprising.  All 3 characters are mirrors of the Doctor.  


##  **Crustaceans: The World Is Your Oyster**

The Doctor said, “The universe is your crustacean.”  That’s an odd statement.  The crustacean is an interesting choice of words.  It does relate to fish and sea creatures.  Also, it relates to the wood lice in “Knock Knock,” since they are non-aquatic crustaceans, related to crabs, lobsters, shrimp, etc.

From the context, I gather the Doctor is referring to the line from Shakespeare’s _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ , “The world is your oyster.”  He’s in the position to offer people opportunities that life has to offer.

##  **“He’s In Section 12”**

When Nardole told Bill the Doctor paid a price for giving Bill his helmet, he told Bill, “He’s in Section 12.”  The AI then targeted Section 12.  However, does this have a broader meaning?  Especially with the possible mistaken identity?  This might be likely.  

When we are talking about learning to read subtext, we have to consider that references may have broader meanings in the bigger context.  It’s just a hypothesis right now.

> **NARDOLE** : Listen, about the Doctor. He walked in a vacuum for far too long. He's mostly okay but, he paid a price.  
>  **BILL** : What do you mean?  
>  **NARDOLE** : He's in Section Twelve.

The SmartSuits have heard that.  They register Nardole’s line, shown below, and search for Section 12 on their internal maps.  


I can’t help but think this means more than we think.  Does it mean the hidden identity of the Doctor, a face of the Doctor, or someone close to him is foreshadowed to be discovered in canon?  

##  **Nardole**

Nardole gave us some interesting information about himself.  How much is real?  And how much is a joke? 

He got his face on the run. 

> **NARDOLE** : I haven't seen my true face in years. Swapped it for this one on the run.

He seems to know Velma, the voice of the SmartSuit, and seems to have dated her.  

> **NARDOLE** : Ooo, recognise that voice. Yes! Nice girl, actress, bit orange. Left me for an AI in a call centre.

Nardole talks about stealing.

> **NARDOLE** : What are you mining? Is it worth stealing?  
>  **ABBY** : You think this is a robbery?  
>  **DOCTOR** : Well, killing you'd be a good start if it was.  
>  **NARDOLE** : It's how I'd do it.  
>  (They all stare at Nardole.)  
>  **NARDOLE** : If I was to do that sort of thing. Which, actually, I probably wouldn't, so please don't worry.

What is clear is that he is the conscience of the Doctor.  

##  **_Star Trek_ & “Frontier in Space”**

The opening line to “Oxygen,” is the beginning of the line from the opening credits of _Star Trek_ : “Space, the final frontier.”  In “Under the Lake” and “Before the Flood,” we saw how the original _Star Trek_ series was referenced in the mural on the wall and the _Enterprise-_ B was referenced in the flood door.  

The opening line in “Oxygen” most likely is also a reference to the 3rd Doctor story “Frontier in Space.”  In the story, the Master is working to provoke an all-out war between Earth and Draconia, and the Doctor is caught up in a web of intrigue.  

Is Missy and/or the Master working to provoke an all-out war?  It certainly seems that way.  Using Clara, Missy pushed the Doctor over the edge.  Therefore, Missy has been controlling the Doctor for quite some time, steering him toward revolt and the events outlined in the Ood episodes.

##  **Why _Star Trek_?**

The Doctor (as Caecilius) is a marble craftsman, and the 10th Doctor is associated with ironmongery.  Both trades are associated with the Roman God Vulcan or the Greek equivalent, Hephaestus, who is the god of fire, metalworking, stone masonry, forges, the art of sculpture, and blacksmiths.  Hephaestus’ symbols include the hammer, anvil, tongs, and volcano.

Wikipedia says, “In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods.  In another version, he was Hera's parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off Mount Olympus and down to earth.”  

Zeus’ and Hera’s Roman counterparts are Jupiter (here’s a connection to Ganymede) and Juno.

Hephaestus is lame, and he is known by many epithets, one of which is "renowned artificer."

“Artificer” is an interesting archaic word that describes how the 12th Doctor in “The Caretaker” described himself to the Skovox Blitzer.

> **DOCTOR** : Stop! Skovox Blitzer!  
>  **BLITZER** : Awaiting orders.  
>  **DOCTOR** : Superior Skovox Artificer. Analyse stop analyse stop.  
>  **BLITZER** : Superior recognised. Pattern one one oh, Orders orders.

The word means a skilled craftsman or inventor.

The Doctor, therefore, is associated with Vulcan and Hephaestus, and, of course, the volcano.  

Caecilius bought the TARDIS in “The Fires of Pompeii” for modern art, which could be reference to Hephaestus and the art of sculpture.  Also, tongs are interesting because tongs, a symbol of Hephaestus, are associated with the Bells of St. John and, therefore, the St John Ambulance symbol.

##  **The Vault**

So who is in the Vault?  It does seem like it would be Missy, especially since she will appear in the upcoming episode.  If she is in there, it would probably seem underwhelming as the Vault mystery, since we know she will be in the next episode.  Or will there be a twist?  Things could always be different than they appear.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to make this meta series as clear as possible, so if it’s not, please let me know.
> 
> Check out my [meta archive on Tumblr](http://tardisgirlepic.tumblr.com/meta-archive) for images


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